Forging Steel
by EnglandBabe1997
Summary: Moments from the new Man of Steel movie.
1. Numb

**This is going to be a series of short one-shot/drabbles based on the new Man of Steel movie. I've never really been interested in Superman before, so most of what I know is from the film, but feel free to make requests xx**

It only takes a second, a fraction of a second, but his fingers tremble like he's vulnerable to the cold.

It's all over.

He sinks to his knees and a sound rises in his throat, a scream too terrible to be unleashed. But it is anyway and maybe it has a super power of its own, a sonic scream of some kind.

It doesn't.

His heart shatters into fragments as he looks at Lois and even though he can see her holding him he can't feel it. He's numb.

He's felt alone for so long, because up until now he's known no one of his kind. He has now and he still feels alone.

And this time it's true.

Only it's his fault.

His fingers tremble as he clutches onto Lois' jacket and the numbness is overtaken by pain.


	2. Everything

It hurts. He doesn't know what, because it's _everything_, his eyes, his ears, his nose, his head. He can't concentrate on anything for more than a fraction of a second before the next overload of information comes pouring in, detecting the temperature and seeing through everything in range until it looks like something out of a horror movie he watched once.

He screws his eyes up against the world because it never stops. He can dim it sometimes, push it away slightly, but it's always there, in the back of his head, like a clock that doesn't stop ticking.

It drives him mad.


	3. Expect The Unexpected

**This is for Guest, asking for Lois xx**

Lois isn't exactly new to being a reporter, and she's good at it. That's partly because she's not fazed by anything - it takes an awful lot to shock her - but this has just about done it.

She had gone after this piece because there had been something strange about it, and there was no one better at digging up the dirt than she was.

But even so, she'd never expected this. Government cover ups and Soviet spy ships were one thing.

Alien spaceships and laser eyes weren't exactly on the same scale as that.

She's gotten used to not being surprised by anything, but this goes over her limits.


	4. Digging Up The Dirt

He hears whispers of the red-headed reporter digging into his past when she shouldn't be.

Clark had never expected anything less - reporters weren't exactly know for their ability to let a world changing story pass them by. It wasn't surprising that she was digging, though he was slightly alarmed by how well she was doing.

He knows when she gets to his mothers and knows where she'll end up next.

He'll meet her there.

Because, to be honest, he's tired of hiding as well. He's tired of running from who he is, even if he knows it's for the best.

Maybe it'll help to have someone else know.

Or maybe it will be the biggest mistake he's ever made.


	5. Questions

This is the moment he's dreamed of for so long that now it's here he can hardly believe it.

He's speaking to his father.

Okay, and maybe it's not really his father, but it's closer than he ever thought he'd get, after all these years.

But he has the chance to ask all the questions he's ever wanted to, why they gave him up, where he came from, had they loved him. All the questions he had wondered since his dad had shown him the capsule he'd arrived in.

All the things he never thought he'd ask.

Only now he can.


	6. Not Alone

**This is for dragonball256 xx**

He thought he was alone. His father had told him that his planet was dead, and he's presumed that something so terrible would have wiped out the rest of his people as well.

Apparently it didn't.

But the one person that has definitely survived is General Zod and he hasn't been painted in any kind of good light.

Would it be worse for him to be alone if Zod is the only other of his people out there? Is it worth it for Zod to survive if it means he's not alone?

He doesn't know.

(Within two weeks he knows for definite.)


	7. Job

He can't wait to see Lois's face after this. He probably shouldn't be enjoying this, but he is.

He needs a job that means he can do stuff like this - know where the things are happening, so he can fix them, be able to get to those places without being noticed.

And, to make it even better, he gets to work with Lois.

What job could be better?

And even though he knows she'll shout at him later (he can already tell by the steely look in her eyes), when she says' Welcome to the planet' he knows it's worth it.


	8. Cycle

He feels hatred rise up in him, because he's different and he knows it, but they don't need to point it out all the time.

And they just don't let it go - until it's really stupid, because they don't actually know he's dangerous, what he's capable of. Most of the time he manages to keep it under control, reign it in.

But sometimes his strength gets the better of him, his anger takes over.

Like now.

And then something bad always happen, something that will make them like at him like he's the devil in disguise.

This time it's the bus falling into the river, and everyone knows it's him.

And they hate him even more for it, even when he rescues one of their own - and they have to know it's out of the goodness of his heart, because none of them exactly like him.

And then it starts all over again.


	9. First Flight

**Another request - I hope you like it xx**

He can't believe he's actually doing this.

Everything in him is screaming that he's an idiot for even trying, because humans can't fly.

And then he has to remind himself that he's not human and no matter how many times he's heard that before, he never gets any more used to it.

But maybe now he will, now that he knows something about his home planet and people. So he believes his father, and in himself, and tries it anyway.

Next thing he knows he's flying, and the wind is whipping around his face, and he's never felt more alive.

And then he crashes.

(And he's never felt in any more pain.)


	10. Normal

He smiles at Lois and takes her hand.

They are walking through the park, hand in hand, and sharing an ice cream.

It feels perfectly normal, and it is.

Somehow though it's surreal. Because at any minute Clark could be called away to save the planet or a city or even a stray cat that's found its way up a tree.

And somehow that's become normal, because Clark can never say no and Lois would never let him.

He does it every day, barely half a day going by before he rescues something or someone, whether as Superman or Clark Kent.

It's their normal.

And no matter how weird it might be, they like it.


	11. Wordsmith

She gets out her pen and paper, ready to write what she already knows will be the biggest and most controversial piece of her life and then Clark starts speaking.

She listens to him, because he has a way with words, just like she does, only his is somehow even more captivating.

She'll write it down later.

Then he finishes with his story and they get into _the_ conversation.

Is the world really ready for what's out there? Can they cope?

Lois doesn't think she can risk being wrong, not with this man who is somehow unbreakable and shattered all at once.

She gets home and her notebook is empty.


	12. Hope

**This is for dragonball256 x Thank you to everyone that's reviewed the last few chapters xx Please read and review this one!**

He's been hunting all over this ship for hours now, listening to his father explain the uses of different things, and waiting for the stories of other things that he doesn't understand.

One of the last things he finds is the suit, displayed proudly, with the memory of the planet it has left behind. He hears his father's words in his ears - that this is the symbol for hope, more than just the letter 's'.

This entire venture had been a symbol of hope for him - hope that he was not alone, to find out who he really was.

So really, there's nothing better that he could think of wearing.


	13. Believe

She can't quite believe she's alive, even though she knows she must be because she can feel her heart pounding in her chest.

She can feel the ground underneath her feet and she's never been quite so grateful for grass before.

She's just been in space.

With aliens.

That were trying to kill her.

Okay, her life has been seriously screwed up lately, and she can't really believe that this is all happening.

She's a reporter, not Wonder Woman. She doesn't know how she's supposed to be able to handle this.

She can't.

Instead she clings to Clark's hand tighter, so her fingernails leave marks on his skin.


	14. Pay Outs

Clark is sorry about the number of buildings that were destroyed in the fight.

But he'd been trying to save the world, and the _other_ side were trying to destroy it.

So why was he the one expected to foot the bill? He may be an alien, but he wasn't Tony Stark. He didn't had gold-lined pockets a mile deep.

Hell, he lived in the middle of nowhere.

There was no way that he was paying for the repairs on each of these buildings, for the insurance companies to pay out.

It just wasn't happening. There was no actual way for it to happen.

But he'd help out any way that he could.


	15. Live

She knows that she has to do this - it's not safe here anymore, for any of them. They're already as good as dead.

But not Kal.

He's not even had the chance to live yet, the kind of life that's free. His path hasn't been predetermined yet, to die with the rest of them on this planet, as their futures have told, whether they be warrior or healer.

Of course she feels the selfish desire to keep him here, but that's not fair. He deserves to live - and she will make sure he has the chance.

Her son is going to live.

Even if it's without her.


	16. Saved

He knows that he could've helped, the day that his father died. If he'd have helped then his father would never have died and he would've been exposed to the world, much earlier than he could've coped with.

But he could've saved his dad.

That would be worth it - well worth it.

But he father hadn't thought the same and had gone to his death knowing that he could've been saved if the world had been a little more accepting and Clark a little braver.

Instead he'd died and the world hadn't gotten more accepting and he had still been revealed to the world.

It felt like his father had died for nothing.


	17. Panic

To be quite honest this entire week had been one of the strangest of his life.

And, to be fair, that was probably true of everyone right now.

This week it had been revealed that humans 'were not alone' and that one of said non-humans had been living on this planet for however long and now everyone else had come to find and return him.

Or else.

For everyone else that inspires panic.

For Perry White that means news.

So he pushes the utter bewilderment to the back of his head and decides to think about stories, and photographs. You can't go wrong with photographs (even if he can't believe them himself).

Maybe later he can think about panicking.


	18. Shake

Lois doesn't do superheroes, in both the literal and metaphorical meaning of the word. She is a reporter, used to facts and hard evidence, not people that can actually fly going around and saving other people, even if that's what's actually happening.

But she doesn't know what it is about this one that is so difficult to shake off, because she can't seem to stop thinking about him. She does things with him that she's never done with anyone before, like falling through space and lending him her shower to clean up with after he's saved the world.

She can't seem to shake him.


	19. The Key

Even since he'd been given the key that he'd been found with, whenever he found himself in a difficult situation or making a hard choice, he rolled it in his fingers, feeling it's comforting weight in his hand, keeping him grounded.

It's the only thing he's got to tell him where he came from, who his birth family is, and sometimes, when he's holding the key, it feels like they are whispering to him, advising him on his problem.

It makes him feel closer to them, whoever they are, wherever they may be.

He doesn't feel quite so alone in the world.


	20. Territory

Sometimes Lois hates the fact that Clark decided that it was a good idea to work with her.

Because now she has to put up with all the remarks from her co-workers about how cute he is, how smart he is, how funny he is, and she just wants to stand up and shout at them that it's her he's going home with after work.

But she can't do that, because it's not proper and Clark probably wouldn't appreciate it.

So she's surprised when he's the one to suggest she stakes her claim, before one of the interns spills her coffee over him again, just to see him take his shirt off.


	21. Keeping Quiet

Clark knows that he is lucky. If any reporter other than Lois had caught wind of his story, then it would be splashed across the headlines of multiple tabloids, regardless of his personal feelings on the matter.

But Lois keeps quiet, keeps her mouth shut, no matter how famous such a story could make her, being the first to publish an accurate story of the truth about alien life on Planet Earth.

He likes her for keeping quiet.

And then he starts to like her for other things - her personality, her temper, her comebacks, her looks.

But he likes her discreteness the most.


	22. Hidden

Perry knows that Lois thinks she's being discreet, sneaking around with the newest reporter Clark Kent, but he's been a reporter for far longer than she has and it's his job to sniff out anything even mildly interesting. Sometimes he turns his skills on his staff, though not too often because sometimes he learns things he'd rather not know (he didn't really want to know that Jennifer was having an affair with Jack, or the pranks that Martin pulled on his co-workers).

But still, he finds it funny that Lois even thought she could hide that from him. He's always known her too well.


	23. When I Grow Up

Clark never knows what he's going to be when he grows up, because he already knows what he is.

An alien.

A freak.

He knows that if the Government ever found out about him he could be dissected and experimented on until they found out what made him tick, so that ruled out anything in the public eye. He had to keep a low profile, not get noticed by anyone or anything.

He couldn't work with people because sooner or later he'd slip up and they'd catch a glimpse of what he could do and he already knew how badly that would turn out.

He couldn't work anywhere that speed or strength was involved, or he'd find himself accidently breaking world records.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do.


	24. Parents

Sometimes, no matter how wonderful that Martha and Jonathon have been to him, he imagines what it would be like if his birth parents were to one day come to see him. He doesn't know who they are, or where they are (and the universe is obviously much bigger than anyone ever thought), or if they're even alive.

But he just wants to meet them once, just to see what they were like, which of them he looks like, whether or not they loved him.

Because as much as he loved Ma and Pa, it wasn't really the same thing.


	25. Pregnant

When Lois first tells him that she's pregnant, he doesn't quite know what to think. At first he's delighted, as most people are when their wife is when she tells them they're pregnant. Then he's worried because he's not actually human and he doesn't know he's supposed to expect. But from what his father told him, they aren't that dissimilar, not that he won't do his best to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible, even if he can't really take her to a doctor (because god knows what they'd find).

But despite all that he's happy.

How could he not be?


End file.
